Did Australia Just Make Itself Un-investible?

Greens have scored a major coup in Australia, as their PR campaign has apparently just convinced all four of the big Australian banks to close the door to lending to major new coal projects. My question – who in their right mind would invest in such a failed business environment?

A federal minister just called Westpac ‘unAustralian’ for its new climate change policy

SIMON THOMSEN APR 28, 2017, 1:34 PM

The controversial Adani coal mine in Queensland is unlikely to get funding from Australia’s big four banks after the second biggest, Westpac, tightened its funding criteria.

Westpac released its third Climate Change Action Plan today, which has a $10 billion target for lending to climate change solutions by 2020 and $25 billion by 2030.

But the detail in the document that has unleashed a political storm is the tightened criteria for funding coal mines.

Westpac CEO Brian Hartzer said: “We will limit lending to new thermal coal projects to existing coal producing basins only, and where the energy content of the coal ranks in the top 15% globally.”

The bank’s tougher criteria rule out Adani’s new $16 billion Carmichael coal mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin to supply the Indian market.

Westpac’s decision means all four of Australia’s big banks have now turned their back on the project, with NAB ruling out support in 2015 after the CBA parted ways with the project, while ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott said his bank was “not involved and has no plans to be involved in any financing” of the mine.

Australian politicians must share some blame for this setback. This new roadblock to mining investment is just another addition to Australia’s maelstrom of green tape for new mining projects, created through years of spineless pandering to every outrageous green demand.

According to JoNova;

… The Adani central mining project application has been running for seven years and faced more than 10 court challenges. It includes a 22,000-page environmental impact statement.

In the Pilbara in Western Australia, the Roy Hill iron ore mine had to obtain 4000 separate licences, approvals and permits just for the pre-construction phase.

The Turnbull government vowed to review environmental laws to prevent activist groups’ legal challenges to development projects ranging from dams and roads to coalmines. It said challenges under section 487 of the Environment Act, which allows anyone with a “special interest in the environment” the right to challenge, were becoming more “vexatious and frivolous” . Of 32 legal challenges under the act that went to court, developers spent a cumulative 7500 days — or 20 years — in court even though 28 of the environmental cases were defeated and three required only minor technical changes to go ahead. …

This political idiocy is having a real impact on the Australian economy. Australia is facing a looming shortfall of domestic energy, a crisis engineered by defective government policies which make exploration more expensive and enhanced recovery techniques such as fracking extremely difficult to permit – a crisis which recently prompted the Australian Federal government to impose export restrictions on gas.

Government to impose export restrictions on gas companies to shore up domestic supply

By political correspondent Louise Yaxley

The Federal Government has decided to impose export restrictions on gas in a bid to ensure there are no domestic shortages.

By July 1, it intends to regulate so that it could force producers to boost supply for Australian users before they are allowed to export.

Resources Minister Matt Canavan said intervening in the market was aimed at protecting thousands of manufacturing jobs threatened by unreliable supply and high prices.

Red tape is often the topic of political chest beating, but rarely do we see apolitical efforts to understand the detail of an industry’s regulatory woes.

That’s why the farm sector was chuffed when the Treasurer directed the Productivity Commission to undertake an inquiry into ‘regulation of the Australian agricultural sector’ in 2015.

After much anticipation, the fruits of that inquiry were released this week: 717 pages detailing (in their words) the ‘vast and complex array’ of regulations each farm business is expected to comply with.

We weren’t surprised by the finding that regulation amounts to a ‘substantial burden’ on farm businesses and the broader supply chain, but we still shake our head at some of the specifics – like dust limits which are lower than the ambient dust levels in the bush; or environmental laws which focus on single trees at the expense of entire landscapes.

There is little doubt in my mind that a combination of domestic green lunacy and an unfavourable global economic environment is having a catastrophic impact on perceptions of Australia’s international business credibility, a crisis of our own making.

When investors compare Australia’s growing snarl of green tape, the anti-business efforts of Australian politicians, with bold initiatives by leaders like President Trump to remove political obstacles to doing business, it isn’t difficult to see where the next wave of business investment and jobs growth will land.

From one who knows:
The volumes of material are to adhere to State Government guidelines for preparation of an EIS.
I have headed a couple of major studies in Australia. I did not count the pages, but they certainly numbered many thousands.
The hoops for environmental issues and Aboriginal land rights issues are horrendous.
The Aboriginal land rights matters gets first attention. It becomes messy because the “original” inhabitants have been arguing among themselves for centuries as to who were the original inhabitants.
Resource projects in any other country are far simpler and more sensible than in Australia.
Australia is “off the rails” thanks to abysmal state and federal governments – past and present.

toorightmate
I too had the “education” of leading a team to write an EIS for a mining project in NSW.
Any suggestions on a Rough Order of Magnitude (-25%/+75%) to prepare one these days?
e.g., % of project, $/project, or $/page?
If you might be interested email myname @ gmail dot com (no spaces or punctuation).

Mr Mosher, same basic stock as the rest of the English-speaking world and we are all doing the same thing: allowing white-guilt to be used as a trojan horse to destroy Western Civilisation. Are you doing your bit? I think so.

We hold the record for the most consecutive yearly quarters without a recession. We also live longer on average and our median wealth per person is far greater than the USA. Plus free healthcare, 4 weeks paid leave per year, one of the highest minimum wages in the world (if not the highest) and an absence of gun ntuters. Plus the world’s best beaches. What’s not to like?

Bruce,
Yup you do have the highest minimum wage in the world. Course a decent house within walking distance of those best beaches costs a few million dollars, so it’s all relative.
There will come a time when serving lattes to each other won’t cut it. Those more aggressive countries will supersede the lucky country and there may not be a chance of a come back. You’ve a couple of billion people to the north and west who want what you have and you’re too silly to protect.
Australia woes are self imposed and impossible for this part time resident to understand.

@Bruce Everything costs twice to three times as much as in the United States. As for free healthcare, there are numerous problems with it in terms of waiting lists, and Doctors themselves getting into trouble if they spent too much time talking to patients. What percentage of Doctors actually bulk bill? Not that many, they cannot afford to at 37.50 for a ten minute consultation. If you want prompt treatment then you need private health insurance.
House prices are absolutely unaffordable. Half a million dollars for an ordinary house. More like a million dollars in Sydney.
If you drive a car, expect to get fines in the mail. There are speed cameras everywhere. Speed limits change often. They will fine you for being 3kmph over the limit. Plus registrations is now so expensive that people only pay for 3 months at a time. Then they did away with registration stickers to make it harder to check if you registration is up to date. Then they set up cameras to check and fine you if you have expired registration. I know one friend who got 10000 dollars in fines in a pick up truck going past the camera which they had forgot to renew. He manage to get it reduced down to one fine.
The place is a complete nanny state. For example of you want to have a bbq in a park, some councils require to you to pay for a permit. The place keeps on getting crazier and crazier every year. I am very happy that I left about 15 years ago. I am repositioning my investments away from Australia as I do not expect Australia to do well.

The sooner Austrailia shoots itself enough times in the foot so that their economy totally tanks, the sooner the rest of the world can do an autopsy and perhaps, maybe, see that the pathogen was green ideology and not real data and real science behind their policy.
I really believe a complete failure of their electrical system, belly up economy, and crash of their mining sector will bring some sanes heads to the table.
Something good to come of their mass hysteria.

“I really believe a complete failure of … will bring some sanes heads to the table. ”
You’re an optimist. Nothing has worked in South Australia yet, and New South Wales and Victoria are racing after them at top speed.

Australia is headed for a trainwreck and everyone can see it coming except the politicians running Australia, who are the ones running the train off the tracks.
Elite mass delusion. And it’s not just Australia’s elites, it’s the elites of the whole western world. They have created a worldwide delusion and they are living in it. And we are looking in from the outside and wondering what these people are thinking.

One hundred years and counting, deaths in the tens of millions, economies and environments in shambles – and they still have faith in Communism.
I don’t think that Australia becoming the next Venezuela or North Korea will cause the slightest bobble. There’s always “the next time” (and the next host to suck the lifeblood from).

Yep, I strongly suspect that, as has happened before, any venture unable to get locally sourced capital will find it from its eager customers’ countries.
So, logically, it’s the banks that are denying themselves business.
There are myriad projects here in Australia wholly financed by foreign money. Maybe that’s what they want to happen.

And the big 4 Aussie banks are making themselves much less attractive to investors by directing their investment funds towards green schemes that are only viable with government directed taxpayers’ cash. I’d rather have my money in coal.

Are voters in Australia brain dead? I thought Canadians were the stupidest voters after the EU, but at least the idiocy there had enough of a limit that Brexit resulted. Americans came close to a tipping point into a multi-generation dark age disaster. That would have wiped out the western world. Australia committing economic suicide will be painful for them, but the US would benefit from it.
If you are wondering why Russia, Iran, China and North Korea are operating with impunity, rearranging the map to suit them and rattling sabres, it’s because there is no opposition. The mighty pace setting West is crippling themselves.
Trump has begun to worry Asia signaling the Kumbayah snowflake image that had been taken advantage of is no more. It is even alerting Canada and the EU that changes lie ahead. The Ozzies, apparently not so much.

Unfortunately, voting for politicians only encourages them and they are all drinking the same bath water.
No matter how many times they lie to get into office, once in they change their tune.
A move to bring in ‘Truth in advertising’ laws to apply to politicians was, unsurprisingly, defeated by all of the major parties voting against it.
We are moving quickly to voting in non-politicians similar to the recent US election. Unfortunately, they are few and far between but are becoming more significant as their numbers slowly increase. Perhaps we might see some change to our crazy ‘green’ policies before these outsiders become politicians and get their snouts in the trough.
Australia also has mandatory voting at 18+ years (rather we have to attend and get our names marked off, we do not have to actually vote as one can put anything or nothing on the voting paper). With the influence the green blob has had over the past few years and an unthinking public, the 2 major parties get the majority of the votes and they are both touting CAGW nonsense.

We don’t have any sensible options to vote for!
The only one worth voting for is the sex party who also advocate legalized drugs (I’m not joking, look it up). I want them to advocate for real music too, so we can have the “Sex, Drugs & Rock n Roll” party 🙂

Yes, very true as we have to endure another 5 weeks of election drivel here in the UK. The problem is that the majority of the electorate are just as stupid and/or ignorant as the politicians they vote for. And you can guarantee that the most important problems facing the UK won’t even get a mention. Our growing energy crisis where all we get is a moronic promise to cap electricity charges form the Tories which is something they argued against in the last election! The ever increasing national debt where nothing is being done the cut the deficit in the first place. The snatching of children from their parents is something else that won’t get mentioned as the numbers rise and the reasons get ever flimsier such that the DDR would be proud of such methods. There will be much about Brexit but little will be said that approaches reality.

Wasn’t there a Sun Ripened Red Tomato Party running in the Canberra Elections? It is a pity the Kerry Packer is not still around. His discussion of taxation which you can find on youtube is very good! He is the kind of PM that Australia needs right now.

Sadly we seem regulation hungry and dedicated to authoritarians. Back when the C-tick legislation was introduced in Europe, promoted as an anti-pollution measure but in fact a trick allowing European electronics makers to shore up defenses against Asian imports during a transitional period, some clod bureaucrat in Oz saw it and decided we needed that too.. in one fell swoop it killed all our small electronics makers as few to none could afford to comply. This was the first time I noticed how stupid we could be.
Basically the idea here seems to be, if you think up something new you need to ask someone in authority to rule on whether it’s OK or not. Want to swim in a pond? Contact the Council and ask – if they don’t have a rule, they’ll make one (no, you cannot). Want to take students on an outing at university? Ask the administration to make a ruling (no, you may not). We’re a country driven by a fear of litigation and it’s bloody irritating. Want to use a furnace to melt metal in your own yard? Better ask first, there might be a law they can apply to prevent you from doing it. (no, you may not)
I tried to discuss with friends the idea that we don’t need leaders and rulers, we don’t need laws covering every aspect of our lives but I am met with blank stares and confusion.. To the majority, right wing people are all scary rednecks.. explaining the origins of the concept of right and left, liberty and authority they are genuinely frightened by the idea of open liberty so it’s not surprising authoritarians do well here. “we need a strong leader” seems the majority opinion. Warnings of past ‘strong leaders’ and their misdeeds are batted away as they re-label those leftist genocidal historic figures as right wing and assure me I’m mistaken.
We had a mass shooting here some years back, the party labelled ‘right wing’ by the media headed by Prime Minister John Howard initiated tough gun laws across the nation to prevent it happening again. Laws were in place to prevent people like the shooter from obtaining a license, whoever tested him failed.. There’s no way this shooter, known to police to be violent and of low IQ should have been granted a license. Shop owners are lawfully required to assess those buying guns – the seller who sold this guy guns also failed. For the failing of these two people (who were largely ignored and their failings not even examined), near every lawful firearm owner in the country was penalized by a massive authoritarian action (elimination of almost all self loading firearms) with zero public consultation ..and the media cheered. That was the ‘right wing’ party. I just don’t know what to say – I fear the indoctrination we’ve had from the left biased media and education system has been so pervasive we will never be anything but a country bound in increasing levels of authoritarianism and insidious, invasive rules.

I wanted to buy some paintball guns to have a laugh on my property with mates. You need a gun license!
Brought a decorative blowpipe in through customs, fully declared. They took it away and threatened prosecution, even though I fully declared it. They got angry because I had the audacity to ask how many blowpipe related incidents there have actually been in Australia.
In the UK my previously eco-freindly 2L 7 year old diesel is now being priced out of London and probably off the roads soon.

Karl,
Exactly. The very concept of liberty and freedom is completely alien to the Australian, convict descended mind.
We have one of the world’s most stupid and draconian civil aviation regulators too.
If you like airplanes, guns or freedom – DO NOT LIVE IN AUSTRALIA

I cancelled my Liberal party membership over this issue, then I left the country.
@ Mike Borgelt I like flying in the United States. The FAA wants people to fly. There is a reasonable amount of flexibility in terms of medical certification. You can get special issuance for a lot of conditions, even type 1 diabetes. You can now get medically certified from you normal Doctor, for private pilot type flying now. Flying in Australia is just too expensive. And I bought my first gun over here at Walmart! I can rent a Cessna 172 for $82 per tach hour. $39 per hour for an instructor. I bet you cannot come close to that in Australia.

I’ve been falling asleep recently to “Outback Truckers” on Netflix .
A common plot is a road train gets stuck for days or weeks where a red dirt road is being washed over by a stream or bogged in a half km long mud hole . Brings the notions of the old prisoners’ IQ deficit to mind .
It’s not lack of equipment . A half dozen guys with a couple of road graders and front loaders , etc , will show up and spend days trying to dig out the stuck semi so it can get food or fuel to the waiting outback community .
But the Aussies seem not to have grasped the idea of ditches or culverts — the idea of building up a drier road forming ditches on either side to drain the water , and the even more clever idea of installing common cheap corrugated drainage tubes so a stream runs under a road instead of across it .
I’ve seen a lot of very rural areas of the US , and I know large swaths of Australia are even lower density . But I’ve never seen any area where basic infrastructure like ditches and culverts are not just part of the landscape done by previous generations . To see the wasted man-days and earth moving equipment spent to get yet another bogged road train out of a mud hole or stream bed when little more than the same time could have been used — if one can grasp the hi tek concepts of culverts and ditches — presents a very low image of Aussie brain power .
( Maybe it’s a class thing with a vast gap between those who post here and those content with mind numbing hours keeping a truck going in a straight line . )

Outback communities? Forget that. You can’t even get between capitol cities on 4 lane roads except Sydney – Canberra – Melbourne. The first time I drove the Cairns – Sydney route it was partially dirt.

That’s why I sold off my bank shares. I don’t know where or why thet are investing my money and I want to see real dividends not rubbish feel good statement about why tanking share value is good for the investor.

All the more reason to hold a Royal Commission into the banking industry. Its coal today, but tomorrow it will be iron ore or gold or any other minerals that the greens take a disliking to. I was heartened by the words of the Minister last night, but its all too late. The horse has bolted. It has been getting progressively more difficult to permit mining projects in the past 25 years. Various governments over the years admit to the problem but do nothing. Just another sacrifice on the altar of AGW. The annual Fraser Institute report on mining investment next year will make interesting reading.

Nick… from the beginning of the essay:
“In the Pilbara in Western Australia, the Roy Hill iron ore mine had to obtain 4000 separate licences, approvals and permits just for the pre-construction phase.”
So to answer your question, yes Australia is making itself un-investable.
Gonna take a wild guess you don’t work in the private sector where one actually has to get stuff done and “4000 separate licences” becomes an impediment to getting stuff done.

“from the beginning of the essay”
Well, that’s quoting from a JoNova post in which she inflated the cost of green tape by a factor of 1000: Heading:“$176b a year lost to green tape, $7k per Australian”
So the 4000 might have grown in the telling. But this post was about the disinclination of the banks to lend. Or it started that way.

APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) believes that “Chinese banks will be the likely source of finance for the Carmichael Coal Mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin … its Global principal Alan Oxley said other institutions were keen to bankroll coal mines …”:http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2016-04-04/adani-finance-doubt/7297828
Whether Adani went ahead or not would make not the slightest difference to India’s or global consumption of coal or to the future GAT trend except for the fact that Australian coal is generally of higher quality yielding lower CO2 emissions if that matters, which it doesn’t.
Oh the ironing, imagine ‘Red’ China now acts like a model capitalist country while The West takes over as the sick decaying moribund economies of the world.

“Nick Stokes April 28, 2017 at 9:27 pm
“from the beginning of the essay”
Well, that’s quoting from a JoNova post in which she inflated the cost of green tape by a factor of 1000: Heading:
“$176b a year lost to green tape, $7k per Australian”
So the 4000 might have grown in the telling. But this post was about the disinclination of the banks to lend. Or it started that way.”

Looks and sounds like Nick is telling fake/false news again.
It takes two seconds to see that JoNova quotes directly from “The Australian”
JoNova did not inflate any costs. That factor of 1,000 is a Nick Stokes invention!
Leaving us to conclude that Nick intended his slight against JoNova. Paid advocacy, Nick?
For anyone who has actually paid subscription fees to “The Australian” Newspaper can check under the “National Affairs” section for the news in the “Climate” section.
Or for a direct link: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/climate/green-tapes-80fold-explosion-costing-176m-a-year/news-story/d9ea11387e48ae9aa02ec3cefb88476d
Enjoy the news that Nick ignores the existence of at any magnitude; or in Nick’s preference, search for the missing red tape and cost reduction factors.
While there, at “The Australian”, note some of the other news headlines under “Climate”:
“Westpac ‘wimps’ over mine loan“, “Resources Minister Matt Canavan called for a boycott of the bank for buckling to the demands of “noisy activists”.
“‘Coal dust’ claims blown away“, “Green groups opposed to the $16.5 billion Adani coalmine have been accused of propagating “fake news”.
“Bandt commits ‘mortal sin’“, “It’s becoming difficult to remain a hard-core supporter of climate change belief when zany zealots are flying the flag.”
“Energy crisis we didn’t need“, “Renewables have been promoted at the expense of reliable power sources.”
“Blackout warnings if no action“, “Victoria, NSW and SA have been told they face a looming supply shortfall if immediate action isn’t taken.”

Nick says ” But this post was about the disinclination of the banks to lend. ”
Dear Nick please READ THE TITLE OF THIS POST “Did Australia make itself un-investable”
Numerous examples of how impossible it is to do business are cited. But you take exception by deciding the article is about banking and therefore all the examples of how impossible it is to invest are summarily ignored for some reason? I am truly baffled at how some people’s minds work. The level of cognitive dissonance on display in posts like this is pretty sad. It is a bizarre hairspliting to avoid confronting the central argument. Your posts do illuminate how so many alarmists can constantly avoid the elephant in the room and cling to some minute thread holding their beliefs together.
ps With no proof you accuse JoNova of lying about the 4000 license applications but even if it was half that it proves the point!! So again you are doing a shell game to avoid the point or don’t have a job where results matter and can’t conceive of how this would impair investment.

I thought the 35 permits required in Canada to open a mine were excessive. Conservative Steven Harper, put strict time limits on environmental deliberations on applications so that ‘go ahead’ for a mine or pipeline would be cut by several years. New provincial and federal lefty govs are ratcheting up the red tape and carbon taxes.
Alberta, our big oil, gas and oil sands producer with higher wages during the boom created a huge influx of workers from our lefty East Coast welfare economies into Alberta. What did these jokers do? They voted in the New Democratic Party (remember the rule, if a party or country has to call itself ‘Democratic, ‘ it aint), the first non conservative gov. in oil gas and cowboy country. North America’s biggest Rodeo, The Calgary Stampede, has been nipped at the heels by snowflakes for it’s bronc busting, bull riders, chuck wagon races…. They won’t be happy until it gets converted to a strawberry social.
I think the Stampede is still hanging in their, but if the the tough, belligerent, freedom loving Ozzies I used to know 50yrs ago are dead and gone, I hold out little hope for Western Canada. The rest of the country, let’s not talk about it.

“I hold out little hope for Western Canada”
The influx of liberals has hurt the Prairie provinces, but not crippled them. All we need is a wall across Manitoba to keep the flood of liberals out after the Ontario economy collapses in a few years, and we’ll survive. We can live without them, they can’t live without us.
But it does show what a disaster open borders combined with easy transportation is, even in a single country.

“… who have to borrow from the local banks?”
These are Australian banks. They’re too small to fund major infrastructure investment. That’s why they can easily make fatuous policies about not investing in things they can’t invest in.

Where I work, in Parramatta in Sydney’s west, there is a 40 storey building being constructed, 13 so far. Apparently costing AU$180mil. All apartments have been sold off-plan to Chinese investors that do not reside in Australia.

Wow. Australia will soon become a failed state at the hands of the Marxists/Socialists disguised as environmentalists unless the people wake up. Complacency almost took the US down the same path. There’s some evil people who will never stop trying to rule the world.

“Consensus climate scientists” are enemies of humanity. Had they a shred of honor, which obviously the venal incarnations of evil don’t, they long ago would have done the honorable thing and fallen on the sharp edges of their computers,

Malcolm is a pseudo Marxist and Beijing has changed the rules of the China Infrastructure Bank so that Australia can build a couple of coal fired powers stations.
The government has big plans to open up the north and agrarian socialist Barnaby Joyce is optimistic about the future.
Westpac is suddenly irrelevant and yet audaciously pulled this PR exercise to save face.

Election looming and Turnbull is doing a Trump. Australia first. Australian jobs. Energy security. And yet, he allowed a carbon tax to come in to effect July 1st 2016. And yet he allows gas to be extracted from Australia sources and shipped overseas and sold cheaper than it is in Australia. But voting makes no difference in Australia, they all drink the same kool aid.

Neo-Malthusian economics provide the common sense, foundational dis-logic for renewable energies. Renewable energies can’t work well enough because the power densities are too low. Despite their degrees in PPE, many politicians (and ordinary people) have deep sympathies for all things Malthus. The 2nd World War began due to Nazi thought being in thrall to Malthus. Estimated deaths: 50 – 80 million.
1. Sustainable Energy without the Hot Air, by David MacKay.
2. Chapters 1 and 2 of Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning, by Timothy Snyder

It is perhaps worth point out that Australia has had a right wing government for for 15 of the last 21 years
and so any issues with regulations are due to the right wingers not the “looney greens”. And it has had a
record number of quarters of GDP growth (104 consecutive quarters) so it has hardly making itself un-investable either.

“I really don’t think “looney greens” present much of a threat to the status quo.”
Which would explain why some of those hyper-wealthy folks might gin up something like “climate change”, which will naturally keep most people poor, and impoverish more people who are not so poor now . . and why they’d buy up lots of mass media to propagate this non-solution to anything, which then poses no threat to them . . don’t you figure, Tony?

I agree. Wealthy capitalists, their oligarchic brethrin are more of a problem than a few hair-shirted, besandalled environmentalists or hardworking under-paid scientists. Of course amongst the things they own is the mass media.
“those hyper-wealthy folks…buy up lots of mass media to propagate this non-solution”.
Hmmm and they’ve been having sneaky meetings with scientists and they are all in on it?
I can tell you what this isn’t: its not a leftist plot.

Tony,
“I agree. I agree. Wealthy capitalists, their oligarchic brethrin are more of a problem than a few hair-shirted, besandalled environmentalists or hardworking under-paid scientists. Of course amongst the things they own is the mass media.
OK . . but I must say that it is impossible, to my mind, that folks getting degrees in science related fields renders them ALL incapable of being corrupted (by some wealthy capitalists/oligarchic types, who are similarly capable of being corrupt, fer instance). I get that science is supposed to be ever so ethical, impartial and all that, but so are lawyers, for instance, and surely you will grant that getting a law degree does not render them all under-paid hardworking champions of justice . . Yes?
“Hmmm and they’ve been having sneaky meetings with scientists and they are all in on it?”
No, just some . . the field/degree called “climate science” is virtually brand new . . came into existence with the climate change “crisis”, essentially. They work with climate models, ya know?

It really is fascinating how the left actually believes that the world’s problems are all caused other people having too much money.
PS: The left defines democracy as them winning.
PPS: There is a very strong correlation between strong governments and income polarization. The bigger government gets, the poorer the average person gets, and the richer those who run the government gets.
So it’s hardly any wonder that those who see themselves as the rightful rulers of others, want more government.

IIRC this project has been active for 5 years and not one inch of ground has been disturbed. This is the sort of madness that is rife in Australia. This is an e-mail I received from my supplier;
“Go carbon neutral
Hello Patrick,
While EnergyAustralia works towards a better tomorrow, here’s a way you can move towards a cleaner energy future. Simply opt-in to ‘Go Carbon Neutral’ today. It won’t cost you an extra cent.
Here’s how it works:
• We will offset 100% of the carbon* produced by your home’s electricity, at absolutely no additional cost to you
• Offset units will be purchased from Australian and international offset projects
It’s simple. It’s effective. And it’s exclusive to you as an EnergyAustralia electricity customer.
What do you need to do?
Simply click the button and follow a few prompts. It’s that easy.
The program will continue until 31 December 2018.
Help us Light The Way to a better energy future. ‘Go Carbon Neutral’ today.
Kim Clarke
Chief Customer Officer
Go carbon neutral”
I will be “opting-out” of Energy Australia, but most, if not all, follow the same BS.

And AGL are doing the same. Not much hope for sanity in the Australian energy supply market. But it’s OK. The mining boom will save us. Oooops! Not in Western Australia. But it’s OK. The property boom will save us. Oooops! Not in Western Australia.

Australia went full retard some years ago. We watched Julia Gizzard campaign for carbon taxes on fuel consumed in Oz, “to stop Climate Change”, while Oz does massive business in exporting coal, oil, and natural gas to be used in smelting Oz’s iron ore in China, producing megatons of carbon dioxide. The hypocrisy of the government’s policies was rivaled only by their idiocy.
But many of the inmates of the Oz asylum have ingested the blue pill of climate self-righteousness, and believe that they are saving Life On Earth by imposing restrictions on mining, farming, and driving (while they continue to drive and fly about). I suspect the average IQ drops about 20 points when people live south of the Equator. It will be interesting to watch as the “green” energy and “green” environmental restrictions strangle the economy. The main growth sector in Oz in the last few years has been in government bureaucrats – not a good sign for non-bureaucrats.

So while the Greenies and the banks are doing their bit to save the planet, so am I.
I have cut my use of fossil fuels by installing a wood burning stove. While, so far, I have been able to keep it fed using dead fall from around my property, I notice that every weekend increasing numbers of people with trailers and chainsaws are driviing into the National Park adjacent to me.
I wonder how long before “saving the planet” results in the devegetation of the National Park?

William – I am curious what country you are from?
In Canada, large areas and cities are banning the use of wood burning stoves and fireplaces. New construction is not to include wood burning appliances. It has been proposed that existing wood burning heat sources would only be permitted to be used after electrical power has been down for more than 3 hours.

Hi Fundy:
Originally I am from Toronto, but I moved to Australia in 1985.
Here, it is illegal to collect fallen wood, but Aussies being Aussies tend to ignore that directive. Similarly, in my region it is illegal to burn during certain months of the year. And ditto.
There is a wood burning stove store just down the road from me; from what I have been told, they are doing a rip roaring business. As is the guy selling portable generators.
I am very curious as to what will happen in respone to the first attempt at prosecution.

A perennial renewable fantasy is the idea of going off-grid. Why anyone would want to do that is beyond me – if batteries and solar panels progress to the point where solar+storage makes economic sense, it will still be cheaper and easier to get your power from a utility, or at least to integrate your panels and batteries with the rest of the grid, instead of doing everything yourself like in the days of hunter-gatherers. But…
…speaking about Australian farmers, some are indeed going off-grid.http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-09/rural-businesses-turn-to-diesel-power-as-electricity-prices-soar/8339346

“Alberto Zaragoza Comendador April 29, 2017 at 12:02 am”
Going off-grid does make sense in some situations where the costs of getting connect to the grid in remote areas is prohibitive. But for large conurbations, makes no sense what so ever.

“A perennial renewable fantasy is the idea of going off-grid. Why anyone would want to do that is beyond me”
Because, as the Greenists drag us down to third-world status, we’ll have to start acting like third-worlders.
What would you rather have? Grid power that can be cut off at any moment on the whim of a Greenist bureaucrat, or reliable power you generate and store yourself?

Whoa! Not allowed to do that, EPA, DeptInterior and their environazi stormtroopers will punish you for that. Can’t be removing dead trees and under brush, that would upset the “balance” of nature, and it helps cut down on wildfires. Can’t be doing that! Have to have those to push their leftist, anti-human agenda, don’t ya know.
Wipe that smirk off! Right here in PA we have had the PADEP go after people for clearing dead trees from their own, private property. In California government blocks people clearing brush that contributes to the yearly cycle of wild fires they go through. Get into the nuts&bolts of state EPA clones and DeptInterior/Forestry Service and you will find they block proper land husbandry, all to push a political agenda.

“Not allowed to do that, ”
Of course not . Like I said , “it makes lots of sense” .
Perhaps you’ve seen some of my comments here on the delusion that these forests need a fire cycle to regenerate . Maybe in Narnia , but not in Colorado . It takes decades to recover .
We ran into the NFS , etc obstructionism here in Teller County CO – tho not as insane as PA & CA . Particularly since the Waldo Canyon fire , cleaning out private property is encouraged .
But a county plan to truck the clean out from the forests down to burn in the coal fired plant at the base of Ute Pass was nixed by the feds altho all the various technical and economic issues had been worked out .
Maybe if we’d proposed exporting it to England … .

I grew up in south Mississippi in the 60s and 70s, on a regular basis large tracts of pine forest were burned off. Did not kill the trees, just burned the grass and under brush. Funny how in the last 30 years wildfires there have gotten so much worse, since that practice was curtailed.
I read about the plan to use cleared dead wood and brush in power plants and trash incinerators, also heard about government at various levels quashing those plans. Too bad the stupidity of the left can’t be harnessed to make electricity, it is endless and easily captured.

As an Australian saving for retirement, I started pushing money off shore. I stopped investing in Australia, the politicians on all sides are just big city know nothing lawyers. In recent years, it was as much as possible. Already, with the high Sovereign risk of investing in Australia, irrespective of who is in power, my returns have increased. The Australian share market is relativity flat. Now political parties are trying to outdo each other in how they can ruin companies (and our investments) with Green initiatives.

Argentina seized all retirement funds when their public retirement plan went broke.
The US talked about it several years ago. Fortunately the idea went no where. I expect such talk to become a lot more common in about 15 years as our SS plan approaches bankruptcy.

When you end up with lower levels of manufacturing ,an increasingly urbanised population and the output of free university courses in every thing but a lot of engineering and sciences ,guess what you get? A left leaning anti business population dependent on government handouts and programs living in a debt riddled economy .
That I am afraid is today’s Australia

Yesterday I closed my Westpac bank accounts – after 38 years.
I also have an order in to sell my Westpac shares – after 28 years.
Westpac’s decision announced disgusts me.
However, the four major Australian Banks have never lent substantial funds to new resource projects in Australia,
Many Australian resource projects have been funder by the Bank of America.

So Aussie banks want to be stupid. So what? It’s not like major projects can’t get funding from China or others. The profits and payback will not go to the Aussies, it will go to someone else. Do these groups not realize that?
As long as China needs coal it will invest and then pay itself. Win-win for China and lose-lose for the Aussies. Sigh.

Here in the states we see this kind of crap, municipality governments playing games with businesses, not so much banks. And then you got Federal government piling on regulations that are killing business for no other reason than political agenda from the left. The War On Coal is the Great Jihad of the left and it is high time we started fighting back, take away and destroy what they place value on.

“The War On Coal is the Great Jihad of the left and it is high time we started fighting back, take away and destroy what they place value on.”
The only thing the left place value on is power. They’re happy to take over any institution and destroy it, then move on like locusts to destroy the next one.
The problem, of course, is that this makes society more and more unstable as fewer and fewer organizations are capable of sustaining their original business or social role, until the left force everyone who wants to maintain a viable society to turn against them.
Which is happening at a rapidly-accelerating pace across the West right now. You mostly just don’t see it because the media are fully-converged and won’t report anything that goes against The Narrative.

The answer is a resounding YES!
Australians have officially sacrificed their economy on the bloody altar of Leftist ideology/Climate Change.
One would think Germany and Spain would be cautionary tales to any country wishing to waste money on expensive wind and solar government projects, but, alas….
Australia has huge coal deposits capable of producing electricity at US$0.06/kWh, but Australia has opted for expensive wind/solar power at US$0.30/kWh…
Energy, by definition, is the motive force of an economy, so when a silly country decides to spend 5 TIMES more for electricity than other countries, its goods and services become uncompetitive and the cost for EVERYTHING increases to unsustainable levels…
Germany has learned its lesson and is now building 100+ coal-fired plants to bring down its cost of energy… Spain has learned nothing and now suffers from a debilitating 25% unemployment rate…
Leftism is a mental disease, which destroys economies and forces people to live under tyranny.
When will people finally start learning the lessons of history?

Since we are now discussing the ultimate collapse of Western civilization, and the role the political left is playing in that, it is worthwhile to look at some of their tactics.
While we all agree that the war on coal is no more than an attack on the foundation of our economy, we need also look at the attack on our base culture.
Specifically, our schools are being used to groom children for pedophiles; this is being done under various guises.
The normalisation of aberrant sexuality has historical precident; as do the consequences..
Historically, every culture that normalised deviant sexual behaviour was soon followed by collapse.
With our grooming of children, acceptace of “trans-sexuality”, homosexual “marriage”, and the explosion of victimhood, we are well down the track. I believe we are beyond the point of no return.

OK.
So I went off on a tangent pointing out how Australia has gone down the rabbit hole, and is leading the rush in the collapse of civilization.
Is that any reason to put my rant into moderation?
What good is a rant if you can’t just cut loose?
I am shattered! Shattered I tell you!

In the US gas from fracking in the Marcelus and other shales has crashed the price. There are huge reserves, companies keep finding more of the stuff and improving technology. Gas is displacing coal for electricity generation. Gas plants are cheaper than coal to construct, whatever the other merits.
Australia has a huge shale gas potential in the Beetaloo basin in the northern territories, population density one tenth that of Siberia. One well was horizontally fracced and production tested to prove the potential, and then the green administration turned round and impossed a fraccing ban.
There is an estimated 500tcf (perhaps more than 10% could be extracted) in one shale seam alone, and there are a few more horizons. The greens are concerned about earthquakes, soil pollution, aquifer contamination (flaming faucets) etc, as per the gaslands film. Years may roll by while reports are written, studies undertaken and bureaucracies commissioned, meanwhile the price of energy drives manufacturing jobs away. How many blue collar manufacturing jobs is one green bureaucrat’s job worth?
A PR film by the Australian company running the project:
Perhaps the geology or economics wont work out, but the role of green governance in throwing sand into the gears of western economies is maddening to behold.

Reblogged this on Climatism and commented:
Yes. Australian politicians have bowed down to the (vocal) minority activist green mob, forcing it to follow and implement feel-good, overreaching green regulations, and economically destructive schemes and scams (wind / solar).
However, in my opinion, the majority ACTIVIST media is to blame – The Left wing, virtue-signalling MSM gunning for the “save the planet” candidate over the reasoned and rational thinker. Those who dare convey reasoned thought, instantly and lovingly enshrined in print as a science “denier”. Forever condemned.
However, those isolated, smeared and slimed (silent majority) “deniers” aren’t to be taken for granted or for fools.
Just think – Trump. ))

I wonder what it takes to get to a revolution going? Impoverishment was a pretty good driver at one time when there was no political option to put a stop to life crushing things. Political options are definitely shrinking. As a preventative, they’ve been dumbing us down, scaring us, and penning us up in regulatory stockyards for easy control. They know that most people are trusting and they even are laughing, cheering them on and reviling the minority that puts up any resistance!
Ozzies are the biggest surprise. I never thought from the ones I used to know half a century ago that the “pommies” had more guts and resolve (Brexit) than the stubborn self actuated folks from downunder. I used to want to go there. I used to enjoy Europe in those old days and some of the enjoyment was meeting the in-your-face, iconoclastic Ozzies.

Us Australians have been captured by the bureaucrats and are being held prisoner. Our crime is ignorance and faith in the media and “she’ll be right mate”. What’s worse we have been building the gaol and are paying the gaoler.
The way out of gaol isn’t clear and the chance for parole is precarious. We’re stuck with stacking the senate with one person and one issue parties. The other mobs in there think they are gaolers but are actually prisoners too.

“Greens have scored a major coup in Australia, as their PR campaign has apparently just convinced all four of the big Australian banks to close the door to lending to major new coal projects.”
Shouldn’t this provide opportunities for younger, funner, smarter competitors? (:
Here, I think I can help.There is a vintage movie called “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. I recommend every one in Oz ought to sit down and watch as the fall weather gets starts to get cooler and the banks start to get a little bigger.https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/19/0d/43/190d4382f4c8a0ddb93595643dc29583.jpg
When Aussies watch this American classic, I would like to draw their attention to several themes.
1. Notice the main character, George Baily and the antagonist, Mr. Potter. They are both bankers. The bad guy would like to have a monopoly, but there is one little building and loan business that makes home loans to the community in Bedford Falls — which prevents the Mr. Potter from dominating the banking business. When the small competitor is absent from the town, notice that the name of the town is not Bedford Falls, but Pottersville. Mr. Potter has a monopoly on banking and prefers that people live in his little apartment buildings, etc.
2. Notice the old house that Jimmy and Donna fix up to live in. This is symbolic of love and marriage. If these two do not find each other, the whole town is empty at its heart, like the old house with the broken windows. But when they do find each other, the whole town is full of families living in their own homes. Pay special attention to the blessing of bread, salt and wine that Jimmy and Donna bring to each home they provide the loan for.
3. Notice that Jimmy had always wanted to travel the world and become an architect. All of his friends and his brother go on to take exciting opportunities and do well while Jimmy stays back. Mr. Potter knows that Jimmy actually hates working in the building and loan business, but only did it temporarily to keep his father’s business from being swallowed by the Big Bank. But in the end, in a spiritual sense, you can see that the architecture of Bedford Falls is altered to something beautiful by both Jimmy and Donna together.
So don’t think its all just applying the correct economic model — although free competition is important too. It’s also all about love and all about home, and being useful in service to others. Good luck Australia.

Also keep in mind that Donna Reed is one of those all time magnificently good looking women.
I still have fond memories of lying on the floor in front of the old B&W TV, indulging in my teenage fantasies involving her.
Ahhhh, the good old days……..!

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